Warmer
by kinosternon
Summary: For the 2018 Natsume Secret Santa over on Tumblr. Taki and Tanuma come to spend the night at the Fujiwaras' after Hitoyoshi's worst storm in decades leaves the town without power, and Taki shares a mysterious moment with Natsume in the middle of the night. (Fluffy/domestic; romance if you squint, gen if you don't)
1. Chapter 1

"I don't like you being out there on your own."

Tooru sighed. "It's fine, nii-san. I promise. I've got the fireplace going and there's batteries for the phone, and I already took the o-sechi out so I don't even need to open the refrigerator."

"It's not safe," Isamu insisted. "You should have someone with you over the holidays." He paused, and Tooru could hear the guilt in his voice even over the phone. "If I could, I'd come back myself, but..."

"There's no way to get out here," Tooru pointed out, not unkindly. "And you already visited a few months ago. It's enough, nii-san. I promise."

"You shouldn't be by yourself," he insisted again. "Look, at least call up one of your friends. Make sure someone's expecting to hear from you. That Natsume kid, he seems reliable. And you know he won't see it as a problem, I've only met him like twice and I can already tell the kid's one of the biggest pushovers of all time."

"That's not nice," Tooru scolded, but she could feel herself blushing on Natsume's behalf.

She could hear the smirk in her brother's voice. "It is true, though."

"It's not!"

"Then prove me wrong. Call him." He paused. "I'm serious, Tooru. I'm worried about you."

She paused, then sighed. It had probably cost her brother a lot to admit it; he had a lot of pride. "All right," she agreed. "I'll let someone know. Just so there's someone nearby to check in with; I really am fine on my own."

"Whatever," he said. "As long as you do."

They chatted for a little while after that, but her brother was fairly busy, and so Tooru didn't keep him for long. She sighed, ears ringing a bit with the silence of the house as she put down the receiver to the landline.

The house was cold and dark, even though it was mid-afternoon, but that was to be expected; the power was out and the windows were covered in a few inches of snow, the sun outside obscured by thick clouds. Hitoyoshi was in the midst of one of the worst snowstorms it had seen, with several feet of snow already on the ground and more on the way.

Fortunately, there had been enough warning for families in the countryside to prepare; Tooru had gotten an alert yesterday and had joined the long lines for things like batteries and non-perishables (though she'd privately thought she could just keep food out in the snow, if it came to that). Her mother had called almost as soon as the warning had come out, to apologize for not being able to make it back for the New Year's holiday. Tooru wasn't really surprised, and had assured her parents that it wasn't going to be a problem.

Her brother, it seemed, was less convinced, but she didn't know why. It wasn't as though she was incapable of looking after herself, after all.

She sighed, and was about to return to the warmth of the main room and its stove when the phone rang again, making her jump. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down, and picked it up as it rang again.

"Hello?" she asked, wondering if it was her brother again trying to make some kind of point.

"Taki." Instead, she immediately recognized Natsume's voice—somehow, nobody else called her name quite like that. "How are you? Is everything okay at your house?"

"It's fine," she said immediately. "How about you? Are the Fujiwaras doing okay?"

There was a faint smile in Natsume's voice when he answered. "They're fine. Touko-san just finished her first round of calling the neighbors, and she offered to let me use the phone."

"That's so kind of her," Tooru said, smiling too. There was something about Touko-san that had that effect on people.

"Yeah," Natsume said softly. Then he made a small noise, as if realizing he'd gotten distracted, and asked, "So things are okay where you are? Your parents were traveling, right? Did they make it back, or your brother?"

"Well..."

And this was the part that was difficult to explain—to Natsume, or to anyone.

"They're not here, no," she said carefully. "But they're safe. With the storm the way it was, they put out travel advisories early, and my parents weren't sure they were going to be able to make it to begin with."

"You're by yourself?" Because it was Natsume, the concern was subtle, rather than overt, but it was still there. Tooru winced.

"Y...yeah," Tooru said. "But it's really not an issue—I have our old heater and a lot of batteries, and it's not like I've never prepared for a storm before or anything."

"This town's never been through anything like this, though," Natsume argued. "Look, Taki...I just got off the phone with Tanuma, and..."

"How's he doing?" she asked. She realized as soon as he'd said it that she should've tried to get in touch with Tanuma as well, but if she was being honest with herself, she'd been distracted by taking care of things at home. "Is his cold any better?"

"He's saying it's all but cured," Natsume said, and Tooru wondered if she was imagining the hint of dryness in his voice. Then it was gone, and all concern. "But his dad went out to help out with New Year's preparations at a temple the next town over, and now they're snowed in. Tanuma told him not to worry about getting back, just to focus on helping out—this has thrown a lot of the preparations for New Year's into chaos, apparently."

"So he's alone out at the old temple?" Tooru said.

"Yeah," Natsume said, sounding as concerned as she felt. "So, uh...I was wondering. I'm thinking of convincing him to come here. It's not that I don't think he can take care of himself!" he added in a rush, and then sighed. "I just...he shouldn't have to, you know? It was Touko-san's idea, and she kind of has a point, it's not a bad thing to stick together when there's trouble like this, and Nishimura and Kitamoto's families are both home so they're fine, but...well..."

"I think it's a good idea," Tooru said warmly. Nothing would stop her from encouraging Natsume at times like these—he was a kind person, but these moments where he reached out to others, where he admitted what he was thinking...they were still rare, and that made them seem doubly precious.

"Good," Natsume said, sounding relieved. "Will you come too, then?"

Tooru realized, quite suddenly, that Natsume had—neatly, guilelessly—trapped her. She choked a little bit on that, silently, glad that Natsume couldn't see her face.

"Uh, sure," she said finally, letting an awkward laugh color her voice. "I mean, it won't be a problem?"

"Not at all," Natsume said happily. "It'll be more fun with more of us."

"Then, uh, I'll just...pack up some things, I guess. Is there anything I can bring?"

Tooru spent a few more minutes with Natsume on the phone, planning, but he suddenly seemed eager to end the conversation. In fairness, she was pretty distracted herself.

After hanging up, she put a bag together and doused the fire, coughing at the small plume of steam and smoke it raised. She bundled up in a few extra sweaters, and sat down near the front window, waiting for the sound of the Fujiwaras' car. Her own house was perfectly silent, and more than a little cold.

Awkward or not, as much as she hated to be a bother, she wasn't going to regret this decision.


	2. Chapter 2

A few hours later, Tooru pushed open the door to the Fujiwara house, ducking her head in and stepping to one corner of the _genkan_ to make sure the others could get inside. "Sorry to intrude!" she called into the dim hallway.

"Welcome!" Touko-san's voice called from the kitchen. A moment later, her head popped around the corner, eyes warm with welcome and concern. "It must be freezing outside! Come on, come in!"

"We're coming," Shigeru-san called from outside, as Tanuma and Natsume piled in behind her.

"I've got the stove going in the main room," Touko-san continued, "so you should all go and heat up quick as you can!"

"Thanks," Natsume said, already toeing out of his boots to give the others room. He chafed at his arms, breathing hard in an attempt to warm up.

"It really is cold out there!" Tanuma said, and looked over his shoulder. "Thanks again for driving us, Shigeru-san."

"I'm just sorry I had to ask you to walk down the mountain first," Shigeru-san said, helping to pull off Tanuma's coat. "Go on, get over to the stove."

"Thanks," Tanuma said. Tooru stepped out of his way as he hurried towards the living room. She almost wanted to leave her own coat on, but knew she'd warm up faster without it. She hung it up and followed Tanuma into the living room.

"I wish we could make it warmer," Touko fussed. "But this is about all we can manage. They say that using a stove makes the other rooms in the house colder, you know."

"There's not much we can do about the central heating being down," Shigeru pointed out. "Though I do wish we had a generator. Maybe I'll get one once the roads farther out are clear."

In the living room was a small gas-powered heater; Tanuma took a spot right in front of it it, though he looked awkward about it. He held his hands out to the stove and crouched down, shivering. Tooru went to join him, glancing over her shoulder when she saw Natsume hesitate. He frowned, then hurried across the room, bringing back a large blanket.

"Here, Tanuma."

"Oh." Tanuma half-turned and took it out of his hands, looking surprised. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"Here, Taki." He held out a corner of it to her, and she took it, huddling under one side. The blanket trapped the incoming heat quite effectively, and she could already feel her body starting to warm up, slowly spreading to the tips of her fingers and toes.

"Natsume?" Tanuma asked. "You coming?"

Natsume wavered. "I should see what Touko-san's doing..."

"Oh," Tanuma said, but he was smiling. "Sure. But don't be surprised if she sends you right back. She won't want you catching a chill."

"I'll be fine," Natsume said. "Back in a bit."

And then he was gone, leaving Tanuma and Tooru to enjoy the growing warmth in front of the stove.

Tanuma didn't seem particularly inclined to break the silence, so Tooru looked over at him, taking him in. He was a bit paler than normal, even for winter, and faint shadows under his eyes hinted at the cold he was recovering from; but his eyes themselves were bright and alert, if a bit absent as he stared into the billowing flames.

She jumped a little when he glanced over at her, feeling the weight of her stare. "Should I, uh...I have a mask?" he asked suddenly, looking awkward. "I mean, I'm probably not contagious anymore, but...if we're all gonna be in one place, I should...I don't want to make anyone worry."

"It's fine," she hurried to reassure him. "You don't need to."

"But..."

"You'd have to get up to get it, right?" She pulled her end of the blanket closer around her, for emphasis, and moved from a crouch to sit on the floor, knees up to catch the harshest of the heat. "It's not worth it."

"It isn't, is it?" Tanuma sounded amused.

"Nope. Besides, like you said, you're better."

"Okay," he said, and sat down beside her. Their upper arms brushed, Tanuma's a few inches higher than Tooru's own. She considered their positions for a moment, and then scooted over enough that their torsos were leaning on each other.

"Is this okay?" she asked, when Tanuma glanced down at her.

He looked a little embarrassed, but not unpleased. "Yeah, it's fine," he said.

He didn't feel feverish, at least not through two layers; she thought at first he might be shivering, just slightly, but the sensation died away quickly enough. It really was cozy, like this.

Tooru heard raised voices and laughing from the hallway, and then Natsume came in, looking chagrined but pleased.

"I called it," Tanuma said immediately. "Didn't I?"

"You did," Natsume said, flushing a bit.

Tooru, who was closer to the door, lifted the end of her blanket. "Come on, get in here. It's nice and warm."

Natsume looked over the two of them, curled up in front of the stove, and hesitated. Tooru thought his face looked a little bit red, especially for someone who'd been over in the presumably cooler kitchen. "I..."

"Hurry up," Tanuma said, not ungently, "before Taki lets out all the warm air."

"There's plenty more where it came from," she pointed out, but Natsume was already moving, looking sheepish. He joined Tooru's other side and took the end of the blanket from her, tugging at it slightly to get underneath it.

There was some shuffling back and forth, as everyone got comfortable, and then Tooru found herself between the two of them, blanket riding up halfway up the back of her head because they were both taller than she was. They'd each wrapped their inside arms around their knees, making sure they didn't press too close to her, but it was a very cozy spot to be in regardless.

She smiled a little and pushed the side of her head into Natsume's upper arm. "Touko-san was right, you know," she said quietly. "You feel a bit cold, Natsume."

"I'm fine," Natsume said automatically, equally quiet. "I'm sorry if it's a problem, though. I can move."

"Not what I meant," Tooru said. "And don't you dare."

"Okay," he murmured.

There was a long pause, as the three of them soaked up warmth from the stove, and not insignificantly from each other.

"Thanks for inviting us out here, Natsume," she eventually said.

Natsume, when he answered, sounded even warmer than he felt where his cool arm was still pressed up against Tooru's shoulder. "Thanks for coming," he said. "This is kind of fun."

Tooru giggled a little at that—all they'd done so far was huddle up for warmth together, so it was a slightly odd thing to say, technically speaking.

Still, when Tanuma said, "I know what you mean," she nodded her agreement and nestled her chin in her hands.

Heaters and blankets were one thing—but the warmth and welcome of the Fujiwara household went much deeper than that. If she was honest with herself—and it felt easy to be honest here, at least in her own head—she hadn't felt this cozy and at ease since the last time she'd been together with her friends. It was good to be with them again.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon and evening passed without incident. It felt a little bit like camping, with everyone in and out of the main room as though it were a tent.

Touko-san had some board games that most of them hadn't played for years (and Natsume, it seemed, had never played at all), and they spent most of the afternoon on those.

Later in the afternoon, after the Fujiwaras left for the kitchen, a familiar, fluffy figure trundled in. Unprepared to see him, Tooru didn't have any time to steel herself against her baser impulses.

"Shiny-Fluffy-Sensei!"

"Ack! Get off me, woman!" But Sensei didn't flail that hard, Tooru found, as long as she didn't try to move him away from the room's heat source. She settled in to petting him behind the ears, amused by the way they flattened to accommodate her fingers.

"Hey, Sensei," Natsume called from where he was playing chess with Tanuma. "Everyone all right?"

Sensei took advantage of the distraction and was out from under Tooru's hands in a flash, and waddling in Natsume's direction. "Yes, yes, they're fine. Don't think I'm forgetting the meat buns you promised me for doing the rounds, by the way."

"Everywhere's closed through New Year's," Natsume pointed out.

Sensei walked right into his lap, digging in his claws, and yawned, settling. "Excuses, excuses."

"I'm glad everyone's okay, though," Natsume said, running a hand absently over Sensei's back. "I know weather doesn't necessarily affect youkai the same way it does humans, but I thought something like this might."

"Everyone with an ounce of sense is laying low," Sensei said, closing his eyes.

A thought occurred to Tooru, and she was instantly curious. "It's...not a youkai doing this, is it?" she asked, tentative.

"Probably not," Nyanko-sensei said, from where he was now comfortably curled up on Natsume's thigh. "Weather just happens. Not everything is a youkai's doing. Of course," he added, after a pregnant pause, "it could be. Lots of things are possible, in this world. But one thing is absolutely certain."

"What's that?" Tanuma asked, worried.

The fat cat opened one judgmental eye. "You are _not_ sending me out there again to find out! It's too cold for that sort of exercise."

"Sensei!" Natsume protested, but the hand stroking him didn't falter. Taki bit back a smile at their banter.

"Nope! Not even buns _and_ hot chocolate would get me out there again," he promised, and resolutely shut his eye again.

Natsume sighed, annoyed, and pushed Sensei out of his lap, returning to his game. Tooru laughed and clicked her fingers at Nyanko-sensei, trying to entice him over. To her delight, after side-eying her for a few moments, he grudgingly heaved himself over and parked himself neatly on top of her feet. If she stretched far enough, she could reach far enough around her knees to brush the tips of her fingers through his fur.

It was hard to tell from this angle, but she thought he just might be purring.

* * *

Dinner was delicious, and by the time it was done, the sky outside had gone completely dark, and it was time to figure out sleeping arrangements. Natsume and Shigeru-san pulled out the spare futons, and everyone started figuring out where they should go.

The only one who disagreed that Tanuma should be closest to the stove, for example, was Tanuma himself.

"You're sick," Natsume said, frowning at his protests.

"I'm also tallest," Tanuma said. "I'll just get in the way."

"You won't," Tooru countered.

Tanuma looked between them, at the way Taki's hands were on her hips and Natsume's wry stare, and appeared to decide that discretion was the better part of valor.

"...Okay, fine," he said. "If you say so."

Tooru ended up between them again, lined up in a row perpendicular to the heater, with Shigeru-san and Touko-san in a further corner despite the teens' best efforts. It was warm enough throughout the room, though, and when Sensei curled up beside her feet, Tooru couldn't have been happier.

She drifted off to sleep peacefully, snug despite the sounds of the wind and snow outside.


	3. Chapter 3

Tooru wasn't sure what woke her, but after recollecting why she wasn't in her own bed, the first thing she consciously realized was that Natsume was gone.

She blinked a few times, blearily, to confirm it, but there was nothing in front of her but a rumpled duvet and an empty futon, lit by the dim orange glow of the heater.

Quietly, carefully, she rolled onto her back, then onto her other side. On her other side, Tanuma was still sleeping, only his closed eyes and nose showing over the edge of his blanket, his expression peaceful. When she levered herself upward, she could just make out the Fujiwaras, each bundled up and apparently sound asleep.

But there was no sign of Natsume, and, as she looked around a second time to confirm, no sign of Fluffy-sensei, either.

Tooru was grateful for the heater's light as she pulled herself free of her futon, and grateful for the heat as she shivered in the cold air. But it was entirely still in the room, everything in place save for Natsume's absence.

She chafed her upper arms as she glanced around the room again, anxious. He hadn't just gone to the bathroom or something, had he? It would be embarrassing if she ended up worrying over nothing.

Only a few seconds in the silence decided her, though: worrying over nothing was embarrassing, sure, but it would be worse to lull herself into a false sense of security if something was actually wrong. She padded quietly out of the main room and into the hallway.

She did check the bathroom first, mainly for the sake of her own dignity (and also because it was already colder in the hallway); however, it was dark and empty, with no signs that anyone had been in there recently.

She peeked her head into the kitchen, too, and even climbed halfway up the stairs, wondering if Natsume might have gone back to his room for some reason. But his door was shut and the room looked dark and empty, and worse, she had a feeling that she was looking in the wrong place entirely.

Uncertain, she wandered her way back down the stairs, wincing at every slight creak under her feet. She popped her head into the living room again, but all was still, so she edged towards the front door, wondering if her fears really were right, and Natsume really had gone out into the storm.

A few steps from the edge of the _genkan_ , she froze and bit back a hiss at what felt like tiny prickles of ice against the balls of her feet. She bent down and felt the floor, and her fingers quickly brushed against small, cold droplets of liquid. She pressed her fingers into the flooring, thoughtful, but there was really only one thing she could imagine them being: melted snowflakes.

This told her two things, with rather little doubt. Firstly, it was still snowing outside, possibly heavily, and second, someone had recently opened the front door.

In a rush, but as quietly as she could, Taki retrieved her shoes, stepped into them, and felt around for her coat. The door was unlocked (further evidence, she noted); she slid it open quietly, just enough to slip out, before closing it softly behind her.

Outside, the moonlight was bright enough to catch her by surprise. The storm had in fact ended, at least for the moment, and large drifts of snow covered everything, heaped up against the trees in the yard, the side of the house, and the wall separating the Fujiwaras' house from the street. A rough wind gusted between these new drifts, flinging tiny bits of ice into Taki's face. She winced and tugged at the collar of her coat, wishing she'd thought to grab her hat or scarf.

Still, it wasn't as though she had the time to go back and get them—not when she'd just spotted the signs of footprints leading from the Fujiwaras' front porch, already faint and hard to track as the fresh snow was blown about by the wind.

Taki followed the prints at a cautious pace, keeping her eyes open. Natsume wasn't the sort of person who would leave in the middle of the night without a good reason—at least, that wasn't something she thought he would do. But especially in Natsume's case, there were a lot of possible reasons. She didn't want to be caught off-guard.

The footprints cut across the backyard, carefully skirting the laundry poles and headed to the wild growth behind the house. Taki pulled an emergency penlight from her pocket and held it in one hand as she made her way towards it, but didn't turn it on. It was actually a little easier to follow the trail here, as snow had been knocked off the branches and underbrush, and she didn't want to draw unwelcome attention.

She shivered, blew a determined breath into the wind, and pushed her way into the undergrowth.

It was a quiet few minutes as she pushed her way through the forest, every moment worrying that that would get too dark for her to see, or that she was going to miss a sign, or that someone—some _thing_ —was going to see her. She was alone in the dark, heading for an unknown destination, and she'd started to wonder to her shame whether she really ought to have woken Tanuma after all.

Then she broke into a clearing, and suddenly there was a dimness from behind her, as though something had passed over the moon. She turned, trying to see what it was, but couldn't see anything but the moon obscured again by clouds.

She turned back, and saw Natsume.

He was sitting with his back against a tree, half-sprawled as though it was a summer day, with his eyes shut and his coat open. The faint moonlight lay over him like a sheet, clung to him like a living thing, turning his hair and skin a delicate silver.

Tooru gasped and rushed towards him, but something in the scene before her made her pause, stumbling to a halt a few steps away.

Natsume looked...peaceful. The wind threw strands of his hair into a gentle dance, misting it with ice crystals. It was hard to tell from this distance, but it looked as though some of them were even sparkling in his eyelashes. Despite the ice and wind, though, he hardly stirred—his breaths were calm, deep and even, as though he were simply asleep.

Tooru stared at him for a long moment, unable to move. He looked...impossible, like this. Beautiful. It was enough that she almost started to wonder whether she'd imagined him; if he was a story she'd simply gotten it into her head to believe one day, or an illusion that would shatter at the slightest touch.

That wouldn't do, though. It was a silly thought—someone as important to her as Natsume could never be anything less than real. More importantly, there was no earthly reason he wasn't freezing, lying there like that—and even if there was some _un_ earthly reason, it was no excuse not to get him inside as soon as possible.

Tooru still paused long enough to look over her shoulder, scanning the area carefully to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them, that there was nothing she'd missed. Then she crunched the rest of the way to Natsume's side, her footfalls loud and squeaky against the whistling wind, and reached for Natsume's shoulder.

There was a moment, however brief, where she feared her hand would pass through him, or he would shatter, maybe, and disappear; but it was over before it could stop her, and then her hand touched fabric and the chilled shoulder beneath, and shook him, gently.

"Natsume?"

Her voice sounded harsh in her own ears, but Natsume reacted to it as though he'd only barely heard. He blinked once, twice, like coming awake, and then looked up at her, confused. His eyes widened. "Taki."

She let herself smile a little bit. Natsume looked like he was trying to decide whether to be scared, and she didn't want him to be. "Hey," she said. "You went missing in the middle of the night. Are you okay?"

Natsume sighed, and his breath fogged suddenly on the wind. "I'm fine," he said, and then, a beat later, shivered. "It's pretty cold, though. You probably shouldn't be out here."

"You shouldn't either, then."

A trundling shape came into view in the corner of Tooru's eye, and she'd turned before she'd even realized who it was. It was, in fact, Fluffy-sensei, some snow still dusting his back, watching Tooru with careful, luminous eyes.

While she was distracted, she thought she saw something else out of the corner of her eye. Natsume had been holding something in his lap, it seemed, but she really only noticed it was there in the instant he swept it under his coat, hiding it from view.

"You're right," Natsume admitted. "Nyanko-sensei? Are you ready to come in, too?"

Tooru thought for a moment that Sensei wouldn't answer, but in the end he put his nose in the air and sniffed. "Of course," he said.

"Then allow me to carry you, Sensei!" she said, never one to pass up an opportunity, and pounced.

Even through her coat, Sensei was a damp, chilly presence at first. Taki hugged him to her chest anyway, though, as she followed Natsume back through the undergrowth and towards the house, and in her arms he soon warmed.

"Natsume?" she asked, still half a step behind, unable to see his face in the dim light; the clouds were starting to get thicker again. "What happened back there?"

"Oh, a spirit came by to retrieve something they'd lost," Natsume said absently. "It wasn't anything too important."

"Or dangerous?"

He glanced over his shoulder, and somehow a stray beam of moonlight struck onto his eyes, turning them molten silver. His smile seemed different like this, almost sly, definitely mysterious. "No, not dangerous, either."

Taki stumbled a bit but caught herself before she thought he could notice. "Well," she said, a bit lamely perhaps, "that's all right, then."

When Natsume spoke again, he'd reached the edge of the clearing, and extended a hand to help her out of the rest of the underbrush. She shifted Fluffy-sensei's weight onto one hip and took it, stepping out into the yard.

"You didn't have to come check on me, you know," Natsume said, not unkindly. He sounded uncertain, any hint of mischief from before seemed gone, and Tooru couldn't help but wonder if she'd imagined it.

"I just wanted to be sure," Tooru said, shuffling her feet. "It'd be bad if you caught Tanuma-kun's cold, or if...something else happened."

Natsume didn't argue with her; he just smiled that odd half-smile that might mean he was pleased or displeased, or really could mean anything at all, and said "Thank you," and pulled the door open.

As soon as it was open wide enough, Sensei flailed himself loose and disappeared down the hall, shaking himself dry as he went. Tooru frowned after him as she and Natsume shuffled in quietly, removed their coats and boots, and tiptoed back into the living room.

Thankfully, all was as Tooru had left it not long before. None of the others seemed even to have moved, and Tooru caught glimpses of all their sleeping faces as she made her way back to her futon.

Natsume followed after, running a quick hand over Sensei's fur from where he sat huddled perhaps unwisely close to the heater before tucking himself thoroughly into his blankets. "Goodnight, Taki," he breathed, glancing over his shoulder.

Tooru smiled back at him and whispered, "Goodnight, Natsume."

And Tooru would have been content to leave matters there, if a few minutes later she hadn't heard the rustle of fabric and opened her eyes to see Natsume shivering less than a foot away from her.

"Hey," she whispered, even quieter than before, and Natsume went stiff and silent before turning to look at her. Even in the dimness, he looked embarrassed.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Are you cold?"

Natsume made a face, hiding his nose in the blankets, and shrugged, mumbling something.

"Hang on," Tooru said, and reached out, tugging the back corner of his blanket. "Let go of this for a second?"

Natsume did, apparently just because she'd asked, because she felt his gasp of surprise a moment later as she stood, stepped over him, lifted his corner of the blanket, and tucked herself neatly in behind him.

"Okay, last thing," she murmured in his ear—getting quieter and quieter all the time, because if someone else woke up now the timing would make things _extremely_ awkward—and then leaned over him and tugged at her own duvet, pulling it clear over both of them before scooting down beside Natsume.

It was immediately obvious why Natsume had been shivering; even under the blankets, his feet and all the rest of him were ice-cold. Tooru was still a bit chilled from her jaunt outside, too, but it was nowhere near this bad.

"You're freezing," she whispered as she tried to settle behind him. Natsume was still stiff, obviously uncomfortable, and a moment of doubt warred with her worries, even as she pushed her feet against his own. "I want to help, but...is this okay?"

Natsume stayed silent for a long moment, too stiff even for the cold to justify, and Tooru was about to take everything back and apologize profusely for invading his space when Natsume turned his head to look at her. She stared; even in the reddish light, his vibrant flush was somehow visible.

"It's...if you're..." He cleared his throat gingerly, barely above a whisper. "If you're fine with it, Taki, I don't mind. But it's fine. I'm fine. I don't..."

"Stop pretending you're fine, you're really not." Tooru resumed tucking herself in, more cautiously now, in case she was reading Natsume wrong. "I'd be moving you closer to the stove, but we probably shouldn't wake Tanuma-kun."

"...Yeah, that's true."

"Really, just until you're warm again," Tooru double-checked. "If it's really not okay, then I'll go back, but..."

"No, it's..." Natsume sighed. "I actually am really cold. Thanks."

"I'll go back as soon as you've warmed up," Tooru promised, yet again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable—"

"I'm not uncomfortable," Natsume hissed over her, and she thought his blush might have actually darkened. "It's just, you know, well..."

If he kept being this awkward about it, Tooru thought a little desperately, she was going to start feeling a little weird herself. So instead of letting herself think about it, she dropped her head to the corner of Natsume's pillow and snaked her arms around him, tangling their feet together. She shivered a bit at the contact, but still held tight.

"Is this okay?" she whispered at Natsume's shoulder.

With the way Natsume was being held, it was difficult for him to turn to make himself heard. Instead, he nodded.

"Good," Tooru whispered. "I'll get out as soon as we've warmed up, okay?"

Another nod.

Silence, then, and the sound of three people breathing calmly and quietly, and two people desperately trying to.

Tooru shifted her position at first, a little at a time, looking for a position that felt comfortable and natural. She found it, eventually; one of her arms was trapped somewhat behind Natsume, and the other lay over his waist, hand in a loose fist over his chest. He'd bent his legs and had them resting against her calves, and while they were incredibly cold they were already warming. His back, by contrast, was fairly warm already, and she pulled herself against it, fighting a shiver herself.

Tooru would have thought it would be impossible to fall asleep like this, with a warm, breathing person so close, and indeed had started by counting her breaths to stop her heart from racing at the sheer oddness of the situation. But somehow, before she knew it, she found herself lulled. She could feel Natsume's heartbeat under her arm, reverberating through his entire body; she could feel each gentle expansion of his torso as he breathed. The hiss of the heater was just audible over the susurration of sleeping breaths, and the occasional gust of wind was audible. Somehow, though, all those sounds only added to the warmth and peace of the night. She was finally comfortable, and so tired...

* * *

Eventually—she couldn't tell how long it had been—Tooru awoke to realize that she felt perfectly warm, and was in fact almost sweating under her and Natsume's shared blankets. Natsume felt about the same, to her relief.

She lay in silence for a few breaths, trying to line up her thoughts, but when she noticed herself starting to drift off again, which she knew wouldn't be good. After all, she had promised.

She teased herself free of Natsume, quiet and slow. It seemed he was still sleeping; he was a dead, pliant weight as she tugged her feet free, lifted her arm, and scooted clear. He didn't react as she lifted her side of his duvet and rolled out from beneath it, tucking it in quietly behind her.

Her eyes had adjusted as well as possible to the gloom by now, and once she was safely standing she surveyed the living room again. All seemed to be as she'd left it.

She nodded to herself in sleepy satisfaction, and made to return to her own futon with her duvet in tow...

...Only to discover a slight problem. Natsume had one corner of it in a tight, one-handed grip. She tried tugging on it experimentally, but he shifted in his sleep and frowned, and she quickly stopped, staring and blearily trying to work out what to do.

Shrugging to herself—it was too late for much problem-solving—she flipped the duvet over and laid it down as straight as she could under the circumstances. Then she slotted herself in under it, covering as much of herself as she could.

It was a slightly position she ended up in, but she was over-warm and too tired to care, and almost immediately started to doze off.

She startled for a moment when she spotted Sensei in the doorway, padding silently from who-knew-where towards them, and thought for a moment that he was walking towards Natsume. Then she blinked again, and rubbed her eyes, and he had disappeared.

There was some conclusion to draw from that, some possibility her too-tired mind was forgetting, but she couldn't quite bring herself to worry about it right at that moment. She looked once more over her shoulder at Natsume, who was shifting slightly in his sleep. She could just make out a faint smile on his face, and it made her smile as well.

If Natsume looked that content, she thought as she drifted off, then everything was probably fine.

* * *

Later—she couldn't say how much later—half-asleep, Tooru thought she felt her blanket being tucked around her shoulders, the curve of a smile brushing against her ear, a couple whispered words: "Thanks, Taki."

By the time she woke in the morning, between news on the radio of the storm's end and the return of normal weather, and the others' mild teasing about how she'd managed to flip her duvet over in the night, she'd almost forgotten about it entirely. When she did remember, she couldn't quite convince herself she hadn't dreamed it.

Still, if it had been a dream, at least it had been a nice one.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for reading!**


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